Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (Golden Harvest film)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is a live-action independent martial arts superhero comedy film, directed by Steve Barron and based on the fictional comic book superhero team of characters of the same name. It was released to theatres on March 30, 1990. The film is an adaptation of the early Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics with several elements taken from the animated series airing at the time. The story follows the origin story of Splinter and the turtles, the initial meeting between them, April O'Neil and Casey Jones, and their first confrontation with The Shredder and his Foot Clan. The costumes for the film's creatures were developed by Jim Henson's Creature Shop, which treated the fans to the most realistic live action version of the turtles. The film stars Judith Hoag and Elias Koteas in the supporting roles of April O'Neil and Casey Jones, and the voices of Brian Tochi, Robbie Rist, Josh Pais, and Corey Feldman as the four title mutated vigilante turtle characters — Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. It was followed by two sequels, "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze" in 1991 and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III" in 1993. About it In the beginning of the film, reporter April O'Neil covers the mysterious ninja Foot Clan, which originated in Japan. It is reported that these robberies of all kinds are happening suddenly and without warning, and without witnesses. She also notes that most witnesses only catch a glimpse of the robber, who most of the time seems to have been young children and teenagers, as the majority of the thieves. As April leaves the Channel 3 News building, she is attacked by a group of the juveniles after witnessing them stealing equipment from a news van. Raphael, one of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, then throws his sai into the street light and the four turtles are dance battlers, who use real martial arts and incorporate moves inspired by modern breakdancing to defeat the attackers and then tie them up, saving April. They then return to the sewers just as the NYPD arrive. During their escape, Raphael forgets to retrieve his sai. Before the police notice it however, April secretly puts the weapon in her purse. The four anthropomorphic turtles are then seen walking home through the sewers, celebrating their victory. They meet with Splinter, their rat master, to discuss the outcome of their first fight on the surface. As Splinter gives them notes on their fight and reminds them of what it is to be a ninja by having to remain hidden from the world and work only in the shadow, Michaelangelo is ordering pizza for the family. Leonardo puts his swords by slicing up the pizza that Michaelangelo threw up in the air and is distributing the slices to the plates, while the last one ends up falling on Splinter's head! Splinter reprimands him for not paying attention and suggests for them all meditate on the events of the evening. The moment is interrupted however, as the boys crank up the song "Tequila" and start dancing to it, with Michaelangelo suggesting "it's like meditating". Raphael, disgusted at the immaturity his brothers are showing, goes off alone and leaves in disguise to see a movie. After the film, Raphael witnesses a couple of purse-snatchers and intervenes. One look at his sai sends the would-be crooks running. They escape into the local park where they are ambushed by the vigilante Casey Jones, who tries to exact justice on the pair of muggers by beating them with sporting implements. Before Casey can deliver his final blows, Raphael intervenes. The purse-snatchers take the opportunity to escape, so Casey takes out his frustration on Raphael, who ends up losing their one-on-one fight. Casey escapes, calling Raphael a freak which angers him even more than losing and he chases Casey into the night. Raphael returns home later that evening only to run into Splinter. Splinter discusses Raphael's anger with him and to not alienate himself from his brothers. In the morning, April's boss, Charles Pennington, bails his delinquent son, Danny, out of jail for robbery and truancy after the former was blackmailed by NYPD Chief Sterns, and then they stop at April's apartment. April tells Charles about her attackers from the previous night, and he tells her to relax and not to push any buttons with Sterns that day. Danny catches a glimpse of one of the turtles, Michaelangelo, while in the apartment. After an interview with Sterns on TV, Raphael follows her into the subway to retrieve his missing sai. But The Shredder had already sent several members of the Foot to silence April. She is jumped and attacked by the Foot in the subway, after she had been spouting rumors of them on television. April is knocked unconscious while trying to fend them off, and Raphael emerges from the shadows, defeats the Foot, comes to her rescue, and carries her to the turtles' hideout after retrieving his sai, unaware that one of the Foot is following him. When April wakes up, she is told the story of the turtles' past by Splinter, when he and the turtles were once ordinary animals, but they were mutated into intelligent creatures by toxic waste. She is then introduced to Leonardo, Michelangelo, Donatello, and Raphael. The Foot ninja who followed Raphael is seen peeking into the home of the turtles. The turtles then take April home, where they have some pizza and tell jokes, however, the jocular mood comes to an awkward halt when April suggests Michaelangelo's "dirty rat" impression is Splinter's favorite. Michaelangelo, Leonardo, and Donatello laugh it off, while Raphael clearly takes offense. After they leave, they return to find their home sabotaged and Splinter missing. The turtles are outraged and return to April's home and stay there until they could hear more about Splinter's location. When Danny returned to the East Warehouse, the Foot's hideout, on Lairdman Island, he told The Shredder of the turtles' location. During her report, April ignored Charles's warning and took another stab at Chief Sterns. Back in the apartment, Raphael was angry that the turtles were doing nothing to save Splinter and after an argument with Leonardo, he went to the rooftops of April's apartment building to vent his anger, where dozens of the Foot ambush him. From across another rooftop, Casey spotted Raphael in danger, because Raphael was jumped by the Foot, thanks to Danny telling The Shredder where they were. After April got home, she took the other turtles on a tour of her antique shop, without the knowledge of Raphael being in trouble. Meanwhile, Raphael was defeated, mercilessly beaten to near-death, and thrown through the rooftop skylight window, crashing into the antique shop below. He is knocked unconscious, and the fight moves into the building, where the turtles scramble to defend themselves and fought against the Foot members endlessly. After Foot reinforcements arrive and drop in through the skylight, Casey eventually arrived and rescued the turtles. He gave them time to escape the building, which had been set on fire during the conflict. While he fought off the Foot, he overheard April's answering machine. It was Charles, firing April from her job at the television station for having disobeyed his warning regarding Chief Sterns. The building catches fire during the fight and the turtles, Casey, and April then escape and retreat to an old farmhouse belonging to April's family as the FDNY arrives to fight the blaze. In the farmhouse, the turtles are seen recovering from their first real defeat. Raphael recovers and the turtles go through a serious bout of training to defeat the Foot in preparation for their rematch against them, while April and Casey fall in love and seem to be getting closer together by the minute. Back in the hideout, The Shredder is revealed to be holding Splinter as his prisoner. He is disappointed at the Foot's inability to ultimately defeat the turtles. One night, the turtles have a telepathic encounter with Splinter, and that is their sign to go back to New York City to rescue him. After fixing a truck at the farmhouse, they return to their sewer home. They learn that Danny had run away from both his home and the Foot to hide with the turtles. But, he is having constant nightmares and he leaves the sewers to go back to the warehouse. Casey is awoken by Danny and follows him to the warehouse. Danny has secretly been taking counsel from Splinter, who tells him the story of his master Hamato Yoshi's murder by a rival ninja, Oroku Saki, over the love of a woman named Tang Shen, while Splinter was an ordinary rat. During the struggle, Splinter's cage was broken and he lunged at Saki's face, clawing and biting him. Saki threw Splinter to the floor and took one swipe with his katana, slicing Splinter's ear. Danny is unware that Saki is The Shredder's alter-ego. When Danny learns The Shredder intends to have Splinter killed, he and Casey set him free. But, as he is leaving, The Shredder catches him and learns that the turtles are back. He then sends the Foot back into the sewers, to finish the turtles. But this time, he too was going. Casey then has a fight with Tatsu, The Shredder's right hand man, and defeats him by using a golf club to nasty effect against Tatsu. Splinter reveals to the other teens who have been recruited by the Foot that The Shredder has been brainwashing them to do his dirty work. Realizing this, they all resign from the Foot. They leave the warehouse to follow the Foot to help the turtles, only to find that the noise from the fight has attracted a large crowd. The turtles easily defeated the Foot members and their fight leads to the rooftops. They then had their first encounter with The Shredder. They take turns fighting The Shredder and are defeated. After one last round of attacks, the turtles are defeated and forced to choose between sacrificing their weapons or saving Leonardo, who is on the ground under The Shredder's weapon. They throw away their weapons, but before The Shredder could kill Leonardo, Splinter appears and challenges him to a fight. Splinter names The Shredder as Oroku Saki and then reveals his identity as the rat who belonged to Hamato Yoshi and attacked him so long ago; Saki removes his mask and touches his scar on his cheek, remembering how a pre-mutation Splinter gave it to him. He charges Splinter and throws a tanto at him to spear him, but Splinter ensnares The Shredder's yari with Michaelangelo's nunchaku and his grip is released, leaving Saki dangling over the roof's edge, until he falls into a garbage truck. Casey pulls the lever "accidentally" to activate the compactor, crushing The Shredder. As the police arrive and arrest the Foot soldiers, the teens tell them where the stolen goods are, April is rehired by Charles, with better perks, to do the report on the case. Danny reunites with his father who is overjoyed to see him, but Danny insists on being called "Dan" as a sign that he's grown up. The turtles are happily reunited and they happily hug Splinter and look on from the rooftops as April and Casey kiss then share a passionate first kiss. The film ends with the four turtles cheering "Cowabunga!" and Splinter laughing because "he made a funny.", as "Turtle Power" plays over the credits. Cast of characters Brian Tochi as Leonardo, the leader of the turtles and the closest to Splinter Corey Feldman as Donatello, the brains of the turtles Josh Pais as Raphael, the rebellious and angry turtle Robbie Rist as Michaelangelo, the youngest and fun-loving party turtle Kevin Clash as Splinter, the turtles' master Judith Hoag as April O'Neil, a reporter for Channel 3 News Elias Koteas as Casey Jones, a streetwise vigilante and former ice hockey player who becomes an ally of the turtles Jay Patterson as Charles Pennington, April's boss Michael Turney as Danny Pennington, Charles's teenage son who is a member of the Foot Raymond Serra as Chief Sterns, the Police Chief of New York City James Saito as Oroku Saki/The Shredder, the founder of a network of runaways-turned-thieves and the main antagonist of the film Toshishiro Obata as Tatsu, The Shredder's second-in-command Sam Rockwell as Head Thug Skeet Ulrich and Scott Wolf as unnamed members of the Foot Clan Trivia In the first three original live action films, the four title characters were turtle puppets which were portrayed by actors in foam rubber latex full-body suits with remote-controlled animatronic mechanical heads and faces that were controlled just like a puppet’s face is. There were controls consisting of facial motors and special computers hidden behind the shells on their backs, while the off-camera puppeteers transmitted their actions to a nest of cables connected to the turtles' heads. The film script is primarily adapted from and based mainly on the first issue the original early Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles comics, along with plot points taken from the Raphael and Leonardo one-shots, the Exile arc, and the Return To New York arc. The stories included in the film are: "The Turtles' Origin Is Told" (the origin of the turtles is told by Splinter and the team fight and defeat The Shredder), "Me, Myself And I" (Raphael encounters Casey Jones for the first time), "What Goes Around Comes Around" (the Foot Clan critically wounds a turtle), "Silent Partner" (a fight in April's home between the Foot and the turtles and Casey), "True Stories" (the turtles hide out at April's farm to convalescence), and "Return To New York" (the turtles finally confront the Foot and the Shredder). In addition to this, there are a few of the light-hearted elements of the taken from the 1980s animated cartoon series, such as the turtles' colored bandanas and their love of pizza, Michaelangelo's surfer accent and his catchphrase "Cowabunga!", and April O'Neil as an investigative television news reporter who is rescued by the turtles from street punks instead of a laboratory assistant who is a computer programmer/software engineer. In the original trailer, there is a shot of the turtles rising up from what looks like a swamp. The shot was cut from the final release but is part of a longer scene that was later used near the end of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret Of The Ooze". The four turtles are named after artists of the Italian Renaissance: Donatello Bardi (1386-1466), Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), Michaelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), and Raphael Santi (1483-1520). The movie portrays Hamato Yoshi as Splinter's master/owner and Splinter learnt his ninja skills through observing and mimicking him. This is true to the original comics, but was the first time this version of Splinter's origin was seen. In the 1987 cartoon, which was the first ever adaptation of TMNT, Splinter is Hamato Yoshi in human form and became a mutated rat after being exposed to mutagen, because that was the creature he was last in contact with. In the film, April is a reporter for Channel 3. In the cartoon, she was a reporter for Channel 6, and in her first appearance in the comics, she worked for a scientist named Baxter Stockman, who was a recurring enemy of the turtles'. She escaped from him when he tried to kill her for threatening to expose a criminal scheme he was plotting using his mass-produced "Mouser" robots. Originally, Steve Barron wished to replicate April O'Neil's jumpsuit look from the early Mirage comics and the 1987 cartoon. The look was going to closer resemble the cartoon with a yellow colored jumpsuit and a big head of red hair as opposed to a green jumpsuit and brown hair. However, Judith Hoag found the jumpsuit "horrifying" and the idea was nixed. The yellow raincoat April wears in the beginning of the movie is a homage to the yellow jumpsuit she wears in the cartoon. The movie contains a recreation of Raphael #1 with Raphael leaving the lair to blow off steam, running into Casey and getting into a fight with him after stopping him from beating up some thugs. It also adapts Leonardo #1 with one of the turtles fighting a horde of foot while the others are in April's apartment. The lone fighter loses to the horde and crashes through the window, and after the team does their best to fight back the rest of the team is forced to make a getway, ending up at an old farm house to recover and plan a counter attack. However, in the film it is Raphael, not Leonardo, who plays this role and gets taken down. In the original ending, after the Turtles have defeated The Shredder and they are celebrating on the rooftop, a scene was to follow where April and Danny go to a comic book publisher to pitch an idea of walking talking turtles. The publisher rejects the idea, thinking the idea is too far fetched, all the while unknown to him the Turtles are watching through the building window. Michaelangelo seems to fall, but it's revealed he's hanging on the ledge, commenting on what he just heard. Kim Newman wrote in the Monthly Film Bulletin that he found the characters reminiscent of the early 1970s Godzilla film series, describing the turtles as "loveable monsters in baggy foam rubber suits" who "befriended lost children and smashed things up in orgies of destruction that somehow never hurt anyone," and that the turtles "drop the occasional teenage buzzword but are never remotely convincing as teenagers, mutants, ninjas or turtles, leaving them stranded on the screen as big green Muppets with different coloured headbands." The in-costume suit actors who physically portrayed the four turtles also had cameo roles as unmasked minor characters in the film: Leif Tilden, the performer inside the Donatello costume, also plays the Foot Messenger that meets April in the subway station. He says, "We've been looking for you, Miss O'Neill," then he slaps her. Josh Pais, the performer inside the Raphael costume, also plays a passenger in the back of a taxicab who says, "What the heck was that?" upon the sight of a big turtle in a trench coat, right after Raphael hops on and somersaults over the cab's hood. Michelan Sisti, the performer inside the Michaelangelo costume, also plays the pizza delivery man who delivers the pizza to the turtles' sewer at the beginning, while Michaelangelo gleefully shorts him for arriving late by saying "Wise man say: "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for late pizza." David Forman, the performer inside the Leonardo costume, also plays a gang member in the warehouse when Casey Jones defeats Tatsu. Category:Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles characters Category:Movies